SAS: 1992 capturing of IRA males was ‘unjustified’ says inquest

Using deadly pressure by SAS troopers was unjustified once they opened hearth killing 4 IRA males in an ambush at Clonoe in County Tyrone, an inquest has dominated.

Kevin Barry O’Donnell, 21, Sean O’Farrell, 22, Peter Clancy, 21, and Patrick Vincent, 20, died in February 1992, minutes after they’d carried out a gun assault on Coalisland police station.

The troopers opened hearth as the boys arrived at St Patrick’s Church automobile park in a hijacked lorry which had a heavy machine gun welded to its tailgate.

Safety forces had intelligence the automobile park could be used and 12 troopers have been in place behind a hedgerow.

They opened hearth with out warning when the lorry drove in – firing greater than 500 rounds.

In statements on the time, the troopers said the usage of deadly pressure was justified to guard their lives and people of their colleagues from the hazard the IRA unit introduced.

Nonetheless, coroner Mr Justice Michael Humphreys discovered the usage of deadly pressure can not have been affordable.

He mentioned there was no try to arrest the 4 IRA males, whilst they lay wounded.

The coroner mentioned the operation “was not deliberate and managed in such a means as to minimise to the best extent potential the necessity for recourse to deadly pressure.”

Mr Justice Humphreys added that state companies had “perpetuated falsehoods” in regards to the incident, having claimed on the time there had been a gun battle.

Actually, the IRA males had not fired on the troopers.

He referred to a Ministry of Defence doc which had talked about the operation as “a wonderful safety forces success”.

After the ruling, Patrick Vincent’s sister Marian mentioned: “It has been everything of my life that this course of has been ongoing.

“It is laborious to say you are delighted at a discovering over your member of the family’s dying.

“We’re overwhelmed and we’re delighted with the outcome, however we’re additionally very conscious at an enormous expense to us, as households.”

Solicitor Niall Murphy mentioned: “Anybody who sat by these months of hearings, the inescapable conclusion, the one conclusion is the decision the choose has discovered at present.

“Whereas reality has been excavated and printed at present, justice has not.

“We’ll fastidiously think about this verdict on the subject of any prospect of prosecutions.”